Dr Fiona Constable is no stranger to the Australian wine sector. Based at Agriculture Victoria, the plant pathologist has been involved in a number of research projects on grapevine virus and virus-like diseases during her career, including Grapevine Yellows and Grapevine Pinot Gris Virus (GPGV).
Her latest project aims to improve virus diagnostics and give vine improvement groups, nurseries and growers confidence in the quality of planting material. Co-funded by Wine Australia and Agriculture Victoria in a collaboration with the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and the Western Australian Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (WA DPIRD), the project will strengthen the wine sector’s capacity to manage grapevine viruses.
At the completion of her honours degree in biological sciences at La Trobe University in the late 1980s, Dr Constable’s career could have gone in any number of directions, but an opportunity came knocking that kickstarted her professional journey in plant pathology that has endured for more than three decades.
“In my third year I majored in botany and human genetics as I thought they would give a balance of knowledge of both plants and genetics, which were two areas I thought would broaden my career prospects,” recalls Dr Constable.
“During my honours year I studied vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae – they’re fungal endophytes that grow on roots and have a symbiotic relationship with plants.
“When I finished my honours degree at La Trobe, in all honesty, I applied for anything that was relevant to my studies, but I quickly ended up with a job as a technical assistant at the Plant Research Institute for the Victorian Department of Agriculture (now Agriculture Victoria).
“In 1989, I started work with the Ornamentals Extension Service, which provided advice on plants to industry and grapevine viruses home gardeners,” Dr Constable explains.
“After three months, I was employed in the department’s plant virology section as a technical assistant.”
In 1995, Dr Constable was involved as a research scientist on a project on Grapevine Yellows and the associated grapevine phytoplasmas. This was her first foray into viticulture.
-and-Kamalpreet-Kaur-770.jpg) |
| Fiona Constable (right) with former PhD student Kamalpreet Kaur, collecting samples in a vineyard in the Murray Valley. |
Moving from Melbourne to Adelaide in 1998, Dr Constable embarked on a PhD on the biology and epidemiology of Australian grapevine phytoplasmas at the University of Adelaide – work that would lead to more reliable testing for Grapevine Yellows and laid the groundwork for the diagnostic tests still in use today.
“Towards the end of my PhD an opportunity came up to do a year-long post-doc in France,” Dr Constable continues. “That was also working on grapevine phytoplasmas that cause Flavescence Dorée, a serious disease that occurs in vineyards in Europe. I was based in Dijon at the French National Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment.
“This was one of the best years of my life, both socially and scientifically. I worked with a bunch of amazing colleagues and some of those people have become like family. Also, the research I did was built on by others and published.”
Returning to Australia in 2003, Dr Constable accepted a job opportunity in plant virology with her original boss, and she has remained at Agriculture Victoria ever since.
“I’m now the Research Leader for Microbiology in the Microbial Sciences, Pests and Diseases division of Agriculture Victoria and I’ve got quite a big team working on bacteriology and virology across animals and plants. So, I’m continually learning about fascinating science.
“I’m also now supervising PhD and Masters students at La Trobe University and that’s great fun too, because the students get to do lots of great science that you wouldn’t necessarily do on a typical research project.
“I love working in plant virology and I work across a broad range of grains and horticultural crops. It’s always fascinating to see the differences and the similarities in diseases across those crops. I’ve been able to take the information I’ve gathered from one crop and apply it to another.”
Now leading the three-year collaborative project between Agriculture Victoria, AWRI and WA DPIRD, Dr Constable’s team is:
- reviewing current practices in virus management across the propagation supply chain
- recommending which viruses should be included in virus testing based on an assessment of their impact on vineyard performance and commercial bearing
- developing and testing the best ways to sample vines in the field for each virus of concern, and
- improving and standardising diagnostic tools and lab testing so results are accurate and consistent across Australia.
“This will ultimately give greater confidence in the quality of planting material available to the sector and deliver better outcomes in terms of yield and wine quality,” Dr Constable said.